Imhotep (The Mummy)
In the 1932 film The Mummy, Imhotep was the High Priest of the Temple of the Sun circa 1730 BC, and a very powerful sorcerer who was killed but denied access to the afterlife. His sarcophagus was disinterred in 1922 and by the power of the magical Scroll of Thoth, his body was revived. In the present, he operated under the name Ardath Bey. His magic rituals allowed him to perform feats such as hypnotism as well as killing enemies by inducing a heart attack from distance. Biography About 3700 years ago, Imhotep was a noble and wise priest who served the Pharaoh Amenophis the Magnificent. However, he fell in love with the Pharaoh's daughter, Princess Ankh-es-en-amon. When she died, Imhotep tried to revive her with the sacred Scroll of Thoth. For this sacrilege, he was wrapped in mummy bandages and buried alive in a sarcophagus, without having his organs removed or passing through any of the traditional mummifying procedures. Also, by erasing the hieroglyphs that normally ensure safe passage to the afterlife from his tomb, Imhotep's executors denied him the chance to pass on to the new stage of existence, ensuring that his soul would be forever trapped within his dead mortal body. The magical scroll was buried with him, as a measure to prevent anyone else from trying to commit the sacrilege of raising the dead. In 1921, Imhotep's tomb was found by a team of archaeologists led by Sir Joseph Whemple. His assistant, Ralph Norton, read aloud from the Thoth manuscript, accidentally causing Imhotep to be revived as a living man, no longer a mummified corpse. The trauma of witnessing this caused Norton to go insane, so when Whemple and Dr. Muller returned they only found the ancient body missing, and no explanation to what had happened. Using the name Ardath Bey, Imhotep passed himself for a modern Egyptian and, in 1932, contacted Whemple's son, Frank and his friend Prof. Pearson, claiming to have found remains of the tomb of Princess Ankh-es-en-amon, and showing them where to dig. When he tried to revive the mummified Princess, he found that her spirit had reincarnated in the form of a woman named Helen Grosvenor. Imhotep then found Helen and mesmerized her, to allow her to remember her past life. However, he believed that they could only be together after he freed her from her current body and revived her with the Scroll as he originally intended. Desperate, Helen appealed to the goddess Isis, who saved her life by destroying the Scroll and killing Imhotep. Gallery Imhotep-AncientEgypt.jpg|Imhotep in life Imhotep-Mummy.jpg|The mummified Imhotep Imhotep-CloseUp.jpg|Imhotep's famous close up File:Imhotep.png|Arnold Vosloo's incarnation (1999-2001) Appearances *''The Mummy'' (1932) *''The Mummy'' (1999) *''The Mummy Returns'' (2001) *''The Mummy: The Animated Series'' (2001-2003) Notes *Although this character is named after a real life Egyptian polymath, he bears almost no resemblance to him other than being high priest of the temple dedicated to the sun god Ra. The real Imhotep lived about 900 years before the movie one, and was also regarded as a great architect, engineer, physician and philosopher. See also *Kharis Category:Fictional Creatures Category:Human Variations Category:Sentient Beings Category:Sapient Beings Category:Mummies Category:Dead Characters Category:Males Category:Magical Creatures Category:Priests Category:Characters Debuting in 1932 Category:Movie Creatures Category:Live Action Creatures Category:Characters Portrayed by Boris Karloff Category:Characters Portrayed by Arnold Vosloo Category:Royalty Category:Characters Portrayed by Jim Cummings Category:Animated Creatures Category:TV Show Creatures Category:Immortal Creatures Category:The Mummy Universe Category:Characters with a healing factor Category:Creatures with a Stronger Form Category:Characters with telekinesis Category:Characters with superhuman strength Category:Characters with superhuman agility Category:Wall Crawling Creatures Category:Fictionalized Characters Category:Necromancers Category:Egyptian Characters Category:Universal Monsters Universe Category:Characters Portrayed by Massimo Corvo